"A&P" life's hardest lessons are sometimes learned too little, too late. In the Story A&P, by John Updike, the main character, Sammy,a 22-year old cashier at a local grocery store in a small town just Noth of Boston. In a matter of a day, he goes from an Immature boy with unrealistic ideas and fantasies, to a man who is about to realize how life altering the choices he makes can be.
On a typical working day as Sammy, as always, works as cashier, he notices tree girls walking in the grocery store A&P. He watches the Girls looking for groceries, walking from aisle to aisle. He thinks about how freely they dressed up and gets attracted to the Girls. He notices that they are very comfortable as they walk around and gets jealous of their lifestyle.He enjoys watching them and interprets their behavior.
After working in the grocery store for a long time, he thinks about what his goals are and how long it would take him to get there He realizes that even if he wouldbe the manager of the A&P some day, he still wouldn't have a good future ahead of him. His working circumstances are bad because an old woman which looks over the cashiers work always finds a mistake to be rude about and sees her as a witch. The manager is hard on his workers and is not ready to give up his job for a long time. Sammy knows that working in this job has no future and sees that he, in comparison to the three girls, is just a bad paid slave of the A&P.
As the Girls leave the Store, Sammy quits his job to the surprise of his boss, Lengel.Lengel tells Sammy that life is going to be hard if he looses this job.
Although Sammy realizes that he has to aim for bigger goals, and even if his father is mad at him, because he gaveup the job his father got him,he is willing to do so, to insure himself freedom and happiness. He also thinks about his family. He wants to give his children a greater opportunity in life than living from the money of two parents working in the grocery store.